The present invention relates to the field of slaughtering and processing animals to provide meat products. More particularly, it relates to a new and improved method for slaughtering and processing animals including poultry such as chickens and turkeys and the like wherein leakage of fecal materials is prevented by sealing the vent of the animal with a curable adhesive to form a vent seal.
Commercial processing of freshly-killed animals is presently a multi-step process often employing various semi-automatic conveyor systems for transporting a carcass sequentially through different processing areas or stations. In the following discussion, the description concentrates on the processing of freshly-killed poultry or fowl such as chickens or turkeys, to exemplify a multi-step slaughtering and processing operation. It should be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that the description might also apply to commercial slaughtering and processing of other animals.
Commercial processing of freshly-killed fowl or poultry requires a number of steps including de-feathering the carcass of the bird and typically ending with a cleaned carcass being cut into parts suitable for cooking or with the entire carcass being preserved for cooking. More particularly, in a modern automated commercial processing plant, birds are conveyed or indexed through a plurality of consecutive work stations or areas. A typical arrangement or succession of work stations includes: a slaughtering station, whereat the throat of an invertedly suspended bird is cut and blood is permitted to drain; a scalding station, whereat the carcass is submerged in an elongate trough of heated water to facilitate de-feathering, a picking station, whereat spinning rubber fingers impact the outside of the carcass to pull out the feathers; a New York washing station, whereat the exteriors of the birds are washed down by spraying with an aqueous solution; a hock-cutting station whereat the feet are removed; and an evisceration station whereat the internal organs are removed from the remainder of the carcass.
These processing steps in commercial poultry processing operations are subject to governmental regulation and on-site inspection for health and sanitary purposes.
It is generally desirable to remove as much fecal matter or other materials as possible from the intestines of freshly killed birds or other animals at an early stage in processing the bird or animal carcasses. Fecal material remaining in the vent or intestines of the animal during processing and especially when the vent or viscera are removed, may become dislodged or is likely to leak out of the intestine or vent opening and fall into or onto the carcass, leading to rejection of that carcass by health inspectors.
Moreover, a substantial problem encountered in modern semi-automated processing equipment arises from the fact that the digestive tract organs are sometimes cut or otherwise opened during the eviscerating procedures so that ingesta or fecal material or other contents of the intestine may be released into the abdominal cavity of the bird which may lead to rejection of the bird by health inspectors. Fecal leakage onto the exterior portion of the carcass or elsewhere in the interior portions may also lead to rejection of that carcass. Possibilities for rejection are increased when it becomes necessary to comply with guidelines mandating so-called zero tolerance for contamination in animal processing, particularly poultry processing.
One prior approach to removing fecal matter involves squeezing or kneading the large intestine and cloaca of the birds to force any remaining fecal material from the bird. This is usually done manually and cannot effectively be accomplished at a rate which is compatible with the desired rates of operation of the bird conveyors in modern poultry processing facilities.
Another approach to the problem involves the use of a suction probe inserted into the vent of the bird. Loose fecal matter within the vent is supposedly withdrawn by the suction applied to the probe. Suctioning vent cleaners of the prior art have not been particularly satisfactory, however. The probes often cannot remove all the loose fecal material due to the absence of air within the vent to create an air flow for entraining the fecal matter into the suction probe. Efforts to overcome this problem by increasing the amount of suction can actually work to suck out part of the intestine itself, thereby damaging the bird, often causing fecal leakage instead of preventing it.
Water flush and suction probe apparatus have also been employed wherein water is injected into the vent area from one portion of the probe and is collected by suction in another area of the probe. The flow of water is intended to mix with any fecal materials remaining in the cloaca and intestinal tract to provide an improved level of cleaning of the interior of the bird.
A further approach is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,083,975, 5,120,267 and 5,292,278. Described therein is the applying of a curable sealing composition to the vent of a slaughtered animal for controlling fecal leakage from the vent, especially before the scalding step. When the vent is sealed before scalding the poultry carcass, it is intended that it remain sealed during the subsequent de-feathering procedure. During commercial processing operations, de-feathering is carried out by mechanical pickers which exert pressure on the poultry carcass, and this has been found to cause rupturing of the gut tissue and resulting contamination, even though the vent seal remains intact.
Accordingly, to overcome the shortcomings of these processing approaches, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method for processing animals to control fecal leakage and contamination. Another object is an improved apparatus and method for preventing or substantially reducing fecal contamination that does not result in or contribute to rupturing of gut tissue during de-feathering.